So here we are… we are now officially through “two-thirds” of the season and I’ve been updating and cleaning up my spreadsheet, so that way I could create graphs for you to see how the predicted scores compared with the actual scores of the celebrities that have left us since Week 4 (eventually I’ll update the previous scorecard to include graphs for the first few weeks of the season).

In case you have forgotten from the last time, the initials “P – A – D” are simply:
– Predicted: this is the original calculated predicted scores
– Actual: this is the score that the celeb/pro pairing actually received on the show
– Difference: is the point difference between the predicted and actual scores

So if you would recall from Week 4:

I mentioned that there was a 2 point difference with some scores being close/spot on versus scores that were way off. For three weeks Katherine/Mark was getting the largest score difference (5 – 5 – 6) and now they have virtually none.

So far Gavin seems the most steady to history with another zero (0) point difference week.

There also seems to be a shift happening with the largest point difference:
– Roshon/Chelsie: 5 points
– Donald/Peta: 4 points

Did this affect standings of the couples that were in danger on Week 4? Well it depends on how you look at it. Roshon/Chelsie had a massive point difference and they were in the Bottom Two. While Sherri/Val had the average point difference of two and they were sent packing.

Speaking of Sherri, let’s look at how her actual scores on the show compared with the predicted scores over the four weeks she was on the show:

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Yay Week 7 aka Classical Week, and you know what that means? It means that later this week you’ll get my Predicted Scores Scorecard for the “Middle Third” of the season. Are you wondering what I mean by the “middle third” well… continue reading.
– First “Third”: Weeks 1 through 4
– Middle “Third”: Weeks 4 through 7
– Last “Third”: Weeks 7 through 10

And in case you’ve forgotten here is the post of how the “Age”, “Occupation”, “Professional Partner” categories breakdown.

Since this is Week 7 how does that affect the predicted scores since I have Week 7 in both the “middle third” and “last third”… simply that I will have individual average scores for the two thirds and average it out from there… I had a reason for doing this, because I did the same in Week 4, but for the life of me I forgot why… anyway… onward!

ROSHON FEGANDance: Argentine TangoAverage Scores:
– Age: 23.667
– Occupation: N/A
– Professional Partner: 22.000Predicted Score / Rank: 25 / 7thComments: Oh boy, in a dance where lifts are actually allowed, Roshon isn’t going to be able to take full advantage of that little nuance unless they pull some of the lower lifts like the pseudo one they did during the Rumba last week. The only Disney kids to have done the Argentine Tango were Season 11’s Kyle Massey (29) and Season 12’s Chelsea Kane (28), but they did the Argentine Tango in Week 9 which are in the “last third” of the season breakdown. Whether Roshon could get anywhere near that high is anyone’s guess, I’m hoping he can, but the numbers are telling a different story here.

MELISSA GILBERTDance: Argentine TangoAverage Scores:
– Age: 20.833
– Occupation: 24.333
– Professional Partner: 24.000Predicted Score / Rank: 25 / 6thComments: Only Season 10’s Pamela Anderson has done the Argetine Tango and she got a 22 (actress in her 40s), what is also odd is that she has had a lot of 7-paddles up to Week 6 only to finally break the barrier in Week 7 (she’s had a couple more 8 paddle in her run up to the point, but the scores were roughly in the same area). So the trends seem to be rather similar between Melissa and Pamela in general. Maybe this would be Melissa’s week to shine like it was Pamela’s break out week? But would it be enough, since Pamela was voted off in Week 7 as well? I guess only time will tell.

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Motown Week? How much you wanna bet that this is honor of Gladys Knight being part of the cast? Just throwing it out there. =) In any case… ONWARDS!

As a REMINDER we are in Week 5, which means that the data that the following predicted scores are based off of, are from the middle third of the previous seasons. If you’re wondering what this means see the following breakdown:
– First “Third”: Weeks 1 through 4
– Middle “Third”: Weeks 4 through 7
– Last “Third”: Weeks 7 through 10

This is to keep the progression as accurate as possible. So if there is a dance that happened in a previous season but in a later week (like Week 9), it wouldn’t make sense to consider it in the predicted scores because the skill level is different between Week 5 and Week 9.

I’m gunning for accuracy here people… well as accurate as subjectivity can be.

GLADYS KNIGHTDance: JiveAverage Scores:
– Age: 21.000
– Occupation: 23.000
– Professional Partner: 21.000Predicted Score / Rank: 22 / 8thComments: We don’t know for sure that Gladys has the Jive, but I do find it odd that she is given the Jive and the Dance Duel is also the Jive. Is this in anticipation that she’d be in the “bottom two” and as thus to help her pass the Dance Duel TPTB’s gave her the same dance? We’ll never know for sure until the show, so enough speculation for now. Since the numbers do indicate her to be at the bottom of the pack… this is just re-enforcing what could be true. Without any data of previous celebrities in a similar situation, we can only speculate, but personally I think the score is fairly spot on.

DONALD DRIVERDance: FoxtrotAverage Scores:
– Age: 25.077
– Occupation: 22.667
– Professional Partner: N/APredicted Score / Rank: 24 / 7thComments: Donald is dealt the Foxtrot, and gets to prove that he can be a debonair gentleman… ooo la la! Season 3’s Warren Sapp is the only other NFLer that has done the Foxtrot midway through the season and he got a 21, the difference between Warren and Donald though (in my opinion) is that Warren was more of an “everyman” dancer, while Donald’s got some game as well as that winning personality. So having a higher score than Warren makes sense to me, but I’m hoping for higher.

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

This is an interesting week. Latin week isn’t a new concept… but normally it would be the Samba and the Rumba… This time around “Latin Week” has an Argentine Tango, the Samba, and the Salsa… Umm oook. Anyway you’re hear to see the predicted scores, not my mini-rant about TPTB changing things up this season… so ONWARDS!

As a REMINDER we are in Week 5, which means that the data that the following predicted scores are based off of, are from the middle third of the previous seasons. If you’re wondering what this means see the following breakdown:
– First “Third”: Weeks 1 through 4
– Middle “Third”: Weeks 4 through 7
– Last “Third”: Weeks 7 through 10

This is to keep the progression as accurate as possible. So if there is a dance that happened in a previous season but in a later week (like Week 9), it wouldn’t make sense to consider it in the predicted scores because the skill level is different between Week 5 and Week 9.

I’m gunning for accuracy here people… well as accurate as subjectivity can be.

MELISSA GILBERTDance: SalsaAverage Scores:
– Age: 24.000
– Occupation: 21.000
– Professional Partner: N/APredicted Score / Rank: 23 / 9thComments: The Salsa hasn’t been done all that often in the past seasons (only Seasons 8, 9, and 12), the only other actress in their 40s to have done the Salsa was back in Season 9: Debi Mazar with Maksim Chmerkovskiy, but that was a Week 1 dance and they got a 16… so not a very good comparison. Season 12’s Kirstie Alley also did the Salsa with Maksim in Week 8 and got a 25, so it’s fair to say that Melissa would be rather close in score if not a point or two below that of Kirstie’s which would equate to the predicted score.

DONALD DRIVERDance: Argentine TangoAverage Scores:
– Age: 24.429
– Occupation: 21.500
– Professional Partner: N/APredicted Score / Rank: 23 / 8thComments: Considering that the Argentine Tango has only been around since Season 8 and not all celebs have gotten the dance… the data is pretty scarce. The only other NFL player in their 30s to have done the Argentine Tango was Season 10’s Chad Ochocinco with Cheryl Burke and they got a 24. So knowing that I think Donald could get about the same score… since his predicted score is about the same. But considering that Donald seems to be hitting his stride I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulls off a better score than predicted.

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

So I’ve been asked a few times if I would do a scorecard of my predictions up to this point since about a third of the season has gone by. I figured: “Why not?” It would be interesting to see just how off the calculated predictions are.

To get started if you noticed there are the initials “P – A – D” this is simply: “Predicted – Actual – Difference”
– Predicted: this is the original calculated predicted scores
– Actual: this is the score that the celeb/pro pairing actually received on the show
– Difference: is the point difference between the predicted and actual scores

Share this:

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Now we are nearing the midway point of the season. For anyone that noticed my comments in previous posts, I have broken up every season in “thirds” for easier calculations. What do I mean by this? What I have been trying to do is that for the first “third” of a season, I only use the first four weeks of scores to come up with a predicted score for the first four weeks of the current season. Consequently when it reached Week Four, I’ll shift into using the middle four weeks of all previous seasons (10 week seasons that is) and use that as a basis for predictions. The idea is that using scores from later in the season (ie Week 7 thru 10) would not make sense for predict scores for the beginning of the season (ie Week 1 thru 3). In this way I had hoped that the predicted scores would come out to be closer to accurate than if I were to use scores willy-nilly from any point of any season.

Unfortunately not all seasons are the same length – like how not all casts are the same size – so I had to find some “normalization” for the length of the season. So I broke up a season into “thirds”. In a ten week season:
– “First Third” includes Weeks 1 through 4
– “Middle Third” includes Weeks 4 through 7
– “Last Third” includes Weeks 7 through 10

While in Season 1’s six-week season:
– “First Third” includes Weeks 1 and 2
– “Middle Third” includes Weeks 3 and 4
– “Last Third” includes Weeks 5 and 6

Why is there an overlap of Week 4 and 7 in the ten-week season format? I did that specifically to keep it semi-realistic of the skill level of all the celebs, and to have a decent broad-base of the “thirds” rather than a more cut-throat approach. Since this is the first season that I’m testing these particular calculations out… we’ll see my season finale scorecard fares in the off-season.

But enough with my blabbering… onward to the predicted scores!

ROSHON FEGANDance: Viennese WaltzAverage Scores:
– Age: 22.000
– Occupation: N/A
– Professional Partner: N/APredicted Score / Rank: 21 / 10thComments: Oddly enough, the only Disney kid to have any trouble with the Viennese Waltz was Season 7’s Cody Linley with Edyta Śliwińska (who was subbing for the then injured Julianne Hough), but he received a 22. Season 11’s Kyle Massey and Season 12’s Chelsea Kane received a 27 and 26 respectively… so I highly doubt that Roshon is going to score lower than Cody, will he score as high as Kyle or Chelsea? It’s rather hard to say considering that Chelsie has only done a Viennese Waltz at the beginning of the season (Season 10 with Jake Pavelka for 20 and Season 11 with Michael Bolton for 16) or at the end of the season (Season 8 with Ty Murray for 25). Middle of the season will be interesting for this pairing.

GLADYS KNIGHTDance: TangoAverage Scores:
– Age: 23.000
– Occupation: 26.000
– Professional Partner: N/APredicted Score / Rank: 23 / 9thComments: Being the first singer in her 60s to be on the show, there isn’t much data to work off of (how about virtually none), the closest would be Season 5’s Wayne Newton with Cheryl Burke… but they got an 18 and Gladys is nowhere near as stiff as Wayne Newton. I do think in some ways the 23 is realistic, give or take a point.

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

This is when things get kind of dicey when it comes to predicted scores. Keeping in mind that I am only taking scores from the first four weeks of any given season as a basis of calculations for predicted scoring, you start to find holes in the data. For example: Chelsie Hightower has been had a partner that she has had to work on the Samba with in the first four weeks of any season (whether it’s because they never last that long or luck of the draw).

GAVIN DEGRAWDance: RumbaAverage Scores:
– Age: 21.773
– Occupation: 23.000
– Professional Partner: 21.000Predicted Score / Rank: 22 / 7thComments: On paper, this is the dance that could help Gavin break out from the lower pack. The other celebs who were singers and in their 30s did really well with the Rumba (Season 9’s Mya w/ Dmitry Chaplin got a 27 and Season 11’s Brandy w/ Maksim Chmerkovskiy got a 24) so Gavin has quite the shoes (or in the case the heels) to fill. To me, a 22 doesn’t seem all that low.

DONALD DRIVERDance: RumbaAverage Scores:
– Age: 21.773
– Occupation: 19.500
– Professional Partner: N/APredicted Score / Rank: 21 / 9thComments: Unfortunately, since Peta hasn’t been on the show long enough, there isn’t much data to work from. In the meantime what I’m curious about is how other NFL players in their 30s have coped with the Rumba in the past. Apparently, not that well: Season 10’s Chad Ochocinco w/ Cheryl Burke got a 22 while Season 11’s Kurt Warner w/ Anna Trebunskaya got a 17. So how is Donald going to fare with the Rumba? I think a 21 is rather middle of the road, it might be off by a point or two though.

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

So we know from previous experience that the couples are either going to be jumping around with the Jive or kicking up their heels with the Quickstep. How do we know what they are going to be dancing? Well, if they danced the Foxtrot last week, they will be working on the Jive in Week 2… consequently if a couple danced the ChaCha last week they will be dancing the Quickstep this week.

So let’s see how the predicted numbers add up!

GAVIN DEGRAWDance: JiveAverage Scores:
– Age: 21.423
– Occupation: 20.167
– Professional Partner: 21.333Predicted Score / Rank: 21 / 7thComments: Gavin is towards the bottom of the leaderboard after last week’s Foxtrot, which means he will have a lot of ground to cover if he wants to stay in the competition (granted I’m not even counting fanbase votes). When it comes to the Jive, he seems to have a lot going for him between his age group and his partner, both ranking in the top half. However, for some reason singers have crazy trouble with the dance in the first third of the season… and being singers that are suppose to know how to keep time… why? Knowing all this, I’d say his predicted score should be fairly close to the real thing… strongly in the middle of the pack.

DONALD DRIVERDance: QuickstepAverage Scores:
– Age: 21.792
– Occupation: 22.000
– Professional Partner: N/A (one time pros average: 22.000)Predicted Score / Rank: 22 / 3rdComments: Donald seems to have a lot going for him in regards to how he should do on the Quickstep. Every NFL player that has done the Quickstep in the first third of the season have scored at least a 20. Add to that his age group (30s) and his score inches up a bit… unfortunately Peta has yet to do a Quickstep on the show… so looking at other female pros that have been on the show once it would seem that the Quickstep isn’t a bane either… so I would say that the predicted score is about par for the course based on the limited data available. Read more..

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

So here we are, the first week of the season and rumor has it that the celebs are going to be dancing either the gracefully upbeat Foxtrot or the fun and flirty Cha-Cha. So let’s get cooking and see what their scores could be.

What I’m going to do this season is different from previous seasons. I will post up the average score of the dance in a particular group/category and then average all three scores completely and round up or down based on intangibles and there you have the final predicted scores. Keep in mind that popularity, previous dance experience, etc are not taken into account… that is simply too many variables for me to attempt to follow for any season.

GAVIN DEGRAWDance: FoxtrotAverage Scores:
– Age: 19.435
– Occupation: 20.000
– Professional Partner: 21.000Predicted Score: 20Comments: With most of his scores being “middle of the road” the only thing going for him is his partner Karina. Her scores on the Foxtrot in the first third of the season on average is relatively higher than most pros. Should he be part of the middle of the pack… he may be alright for the week (considering the rabid fan base I’ve noticed thus far) but if he doesn’t shine either this week or next week, he could be in trouble for the casual viewer.

DONALD DRIVERDance: ChaChaAverage Scores:
– Age: 19.667
– Occupation: 19.143
– Professional Partner: 14.000Predicted Score: 18Comments: It’s always hard to tell how a celeb would do when they are paired with a relatively new pro. NFL players typically do better in the Foxtrot out of the gate as opposed to the ChaCha, so with a couple of strikes against him… NFL players could surprise the audience by sheer weight of their personality, he might be lucky here. However, when looking at the scores of NFL players in their 30s, they tend to hit above average (21.000)… so I almost feel that this score is rather low overall. Read more..

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Now that you’ve read / seen where everything ranks at the conclusion of Season 13, how does all that math apply to the Season 14 celebrities?

SHERRI SHEPHERDAge: 40sOccupation: HostProfessional Partner: Valentin ChmerkovskiyOverall Rank: 12 ( 9 – 10 – 11 )Comments: She’s been heavily promoting herself to get onto the show for the past few seasons (a la Florence Henderson). So this really came as no surprise when she was announced as part of the cast. Having a relatively “new” pro for a partner doesn’t help her much. Those that are known for hosting duties in recent memory have been all over the spectrum depending on the combination. But ABC loves the cross promotion, so with her being part of The View allows ABC to bring in Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, etc into the audience for Dancing with the Stars as a way to bring A-listers into the fold (a la David Arquette and Courtney Cox Arquette or Kirstie Alley with John Travolta). Granted the cross promotion only works for as long as she’s on the show… so we’ll see how long this lasts.Conclusion: I don’t necessarily agree with the numbers but this also depends on how everyone else has done.

DONALD DRIVERAge: 30sOccupation: NFLProfessional Partner: Peta MurgatroydOverall Rank: 11 ( 3 – 1 – 12 )Comments: NFL players typically do rather well on the show, how I have no idea, maybe because the guys are so bored when the NFL season is over that they turn onto Dancing with the Stars to see which NFL player will be on the show (they’ve been on nine of the thirteen seasons thus far). In the seasons that an NFL star was part of the cast they have placed either at the midway point or higher, how I cannot say… I swear I think the male demographic is much higher than people may at first believe it to be. Two of the winners were NFL stars (Emmitt Smith and Hines Ward). So I’ll be interested to see how far Donald goes in this particular season. Again having a relatively “new” pro doesn’t seem to help his numbers any.Conclusion: This is another rank that I don’t necessarily agree with the numbers… I guess we’ll wait and see.

MARTINA NAVRATILOVAAge: 50sOccupation: Athlete (Tennis)Professional Partner: Tony DovolaniOverall Rank: 10 ( 11 – 9 – 9 )Comments: Athletes – outside of the Olympians – don’t typically fare well and as a tennis player, she is placed firmly in the “athletes” category. The last time there was a tennis player in the cast it was Monica Seles in Season 6 with Jonathan Roberts and she didn’t last, leaving the season within the first couple of weeks. I’m not saying that Martina would follow the same path, because other athletes (Helio – racecar driver, Ty Murray – rodeo, Louie Vito – snowboarding, Hope Solo – Soccer) fared well… Now add Tony into the equation, who hasn’t had the best track record either (especilaly in recent seasons) and it still doesn’t look good. Her age group hasn’t fared well on the show (excepting Jennifer Grey and Donny Osmond)…Conclusion: I’ll agree with her being ranked relatively low… just how low I don’t know.

JACK WAGNERAge: 50sOccupation: Soap Opera ActorProfessional Partner: Anna TrebunskayaOverall Rank: 9 ( 11 – 3 – 10 )Comments: I totally fangirled when I realized that he’s going to be on the show. Not because he was/is on a soap opera (The Bold and the Beautiful – one of my favorites) but because he played the title role of Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde in Frank Wildhorn‘s musical production of Jekyll and Hyde (he did a FAR BETTER than David Hasselhoff), in fact I have a CD of him singing somewhere. In any case, yes, I totally fangirled and as thus I can’t really keep a very objective opinion about him but I’ll try. Soap Opera stars for some odd reason tend to fare well on Dancing with the Stars, frequently going past the midway point of the season (Aiden Turner being the exception). So for me I would rather put him in as an entertainer, but since most people would know him as a soap opera star… he’s stuck, which isn’t bad because soap opera stars tend to do reasonably well on this show for some reason (must be the eye candy).Conclusion: So me being me and selfish I’m wanting to see him to go past the midway point of the show so I could drool enjoy his dancing

MELISSA GILBERTAge: 40sOccupation: ActressProfessional Partner: Maksim ChmerkovskiyOverall Rank: 8 ( 9 – 12 – 4 )Comments: Other than Laura Ingalls from the Little House on the Prairie series is there any other iconic roles that Melissa is known for? I know she’s been a fixture in made for tv movies for most of her life, but that doesn’t help someone that doesn’t really watch tv in general (aka moi). Nevertheless actresses in general don’t usually fare well on the show with less than one-third of all actresses going beyond the midway point of the competition… and they tended to be extremely iconic actresses in their adult lives (Jennifer Grey, Kirstie Alley, Jennie Garth, Jane Seymour, Pamela Anderson to name a few). Having Maksim as a partner can be a good thing since overall he has a stronger track record than most pros (outside of Denise Richards and Debi Mazar).Conclusion: Honestly for me, she’s up the in air… I’m very much on the fence with her.

KATHERINE JENKINSAge: 30sOccupation: Singer (Opera)Professional Partner: Mark BallasOverall Rank: 7 ( 3 – 4 – 7 )Comments: Now if Katherine Jenkins was Vittorio Grigolo I would have jumped on the next plane to Los Angeles and stayed there for the duration of the show just to watch him. Fortunately for Vittorio and my wallet, he’s not going to be doing something like Dancing with the Stars anytime soon, which come to think of it I don’t know why Katherine would participate in the U.S. Dancing with the Stars as opposed to the U.K.’s Strictly Come Dancing… unless she’s trying to break into the U.S. music scene in some way. I mean Dancing with the Stars has been known to be the launch pad of rekindling dying careers, creating new ones, or salvaging careers, so it’s not exactly far off the mark to say that out of everyone in the cast this is probably more of a publicity stunt than anything else, maybe.Conclusion: Overall she has a semi-decent ranking mix, she’s a bit of an unknown in general. So I’m going to withhold judgment and just say I hope to see her last for a while.

JALEEL WHITEAge: 30sOccupation: ActorProfessional Partner: Kym JohnsonOverall Rank: 6 ( 3 – 7 – 6 )Comments: Ok, I’m a nerd, so I fangirled. In case you were living under a major rock in the 90s you should know of the iconic character Steve Urkel from Family Matters… or his alter ego: Stefan Urquelle *drools*. Anyway, actors in general tend to do better than actresses, I have no idea why… that’s what the numbers tell me. Maybe it’s the eye candy, maybe they are more endearing to the watching demographic, maybe it’s a bit of all three. In any case, he’s most likely going to come in with a stronger fanbase than most. I’m really looking forward to this pairing, Kym could totally use his huge arsenal of acting chops to get the character of the dances (a la Donny Osmond), it’s just the matter of can he dance?Conclusion: I’m hoping/thinking that he’ll be lasting past the midway point.

GAVIN DEGRAWAge: 30sOccupation: SingerProfessional Partner: Karina SmirnoffOverall Rank: 5 ( 3 – 4 – 5 )Comments: This is a classic example of someone trying to rekindle or salvage their dying career. I don’t remember any songs sung by him, but I’ve never been one for the U.S. mainstream music to begin with. With a few exceptions here and there, anyone that made their name via a singing career tend to stay in the middle of the pack going towards the midway point of the season or maybe just passing it by the week. Where would Gavin land in this normalization? I’m thinking he’ll just miss the midway point… but with Karina kicking his butt, we might be in for a surprise… especially since Karina did Aaron Carter well. Keep in mind that Karina’s stock shot up with her win last season. But she tends to have a stronger track record than most pros (not counting Steve Wozniak). Every singer that Karina has worked with has placed 5th in their season (Billy Ray, Mario, Aaron Carter) so I’m actually laughing that the numbers came out the same way.Comments Addendum: Ok… so I fanned a few flames when I mentioned that I was under the belief that Gavin was trying to salvage his career. I personally have not heard of him in several years and felt that he had fallen off the face of the planet. So I am going to retrack my original statement about his career… and just say that this show could possibly be something of a promotion for him… since his latest album came out last year and he is currently on tour… or he’s just doing it for the sake of doing it.Conclusion: Gavin has a lot going for him numbers-wise, as long as his personality meshes with Karina’s he should be ok, don’t know how long he’d last though.

GLADYS KNIGHTAge: 60sOccupation: Singer (Legend)Professional Partner: Tristin MacManusOverall Rank: 4 ( 2 – 4 – 3 )Comments: On the other side of the singer spectrum we have a legend in our midst, a last minute addition if rumors are to be believed. Oddly enough celebrities in their 60s actually fare better than most other age groups (outside of the obvious Teens and those in their 20s) just barely inching past those in their 30s. Being a legend, Gladys has a lot going for her, a built in fanbase, musicality and of all the “new” professional dancers she landed the most successful of the three.Conclusion: So I could see her heading towards the midway point on the show, but past it? The jury’s out.

ROSHON FAGENAge: 20sOccupation: DisneyProfessional Partner: Chelsie HightowerOverall Rank: 3 ( 1 – 2 – 8 )Comments: ENOUGH WITH THE DISNEY STARS ALREADY! I know ABC and Disney are tied at the hip, but really? Another classic example of ABC cross promoting we have the representative from the Disney channel. Not only that, by being in his 20s he has youth and energy by his side to go far in the season. My speculation is that ABC is wanting the youth ratings so they are bringing in someone from the Disney channel to boost said ratings (especially since they will be competing against The Voice that overlaps in the 8:00pm – 9:00pm timeslot). I wouldn’t be surprised if TPTB are hoping for another “Kyle Massey” in Roshon… just sayin’.Conclusion: All that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Roshon continues the Disney Channel strong streak, he might have that Disney spirit that his predecessors had to get far on the show.

WILLIAM LEVYAge: 30sOccupation: ActorProfessional Partner: Cheryl BurkeOverall Rank: 2 ( 3 – 7 – 2 )Comments: Not only is ABC trying to stretch their age demographic, they bring in one of the hottest guys from Telemundo. I know absolutely nothing about him so I had to ask my Mexican friend who was bound to know more about William than I did… his take on him: “He is so very hunky and has a spectacular sense of humor. Once he went onto a talk show and just started undressing stating ‘this is what you all came to see anyway, right?’…” Well I guess we just discovered our new eye candy for the season, or (hell) he might be the next “Gilles Marini” for all I care at this point.Conclusion: The jury’s out, but if he could dance, meld with his partner and keep that (theoretical) sense of humor up… I could see this placement happening.

MARIA MENOUNOSAge: 30sOccupation: HostProfessional Partner: Derek HoughOverall Rank: 1 ( 3 – 10 – 1 )Comments: My evil mind wanted to call this couple the “Barbie and Ken” of Season 14 only in reverse since Maria is a brunette and Derek’s a blonde(-ish), but they do make a pretty couple. Maria has a sense of humor, is a television host, people know her… so yeeeeeaaaah. Not much to say here on my end, except… She has Derek for a partner who brings out the best from his partners and with the strongest track record of all the pros. Her age group also fares well on the show… Her personality does shine rather well on the red carpet, however, and that should translate well on the dance floor.Conclusion: By the sheer power of Derek she’ll get far, her combo can be considered strong. Win though? I’m not sure.

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My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)